Sword Among Us

Once Class One Hall’s members plunged into the abyss under Netherworld’s lead and shattered to pieces, Punishment Mount and the Iron Chain Bridge regained their peace.

Class One Hall’s survivors had left dejectedly.

The members of other organizations who had been watching by the side looked at each other at a loss. Even though Class One Hall had left behind the snake tendons, no one dared to step on the bridge that had caused countless powerful players to perish.

Class One Hall had come prepared, and they even brought with them a powerful fighting force, but even they were easily destroyed. In a short time available to them, they could not think of a better plan to cross Iron Chain Bridge!

As time passed, the quest time grew shorter, and the people who stayed on the mountain across Punishment Mount left one after another.

However, there were still a handful of people who stayed in the area.

After all, it was almost the emperor’s birthday, and it would not harm them if they stayed around. Hence, they decided to wait for the person from Punishment Mount to return.

They, too, wanted to see just how the mysterious player who caused countless players to fall into the chasm and made even Class One Hall return in failure and dejectedness looked like. They wanted to know just who he was!

However, unfortunately for them, they never managed to see Happy.

When the emperor’s birthday was over, the system notified them that all bounties were rendered null. All brocade boxes in the hands of players belonged to them from that moment onwards, but Happy still did cross the bridge.

One hour, two hours, and half a day passed, but he did not take any action!

The players who were waiting on the mountain found themselves unable to stand around for much longer. They started to wonder whether there were other paths to descend from Punishment Mount or whether the person was overly cautious and was unwilling to take the risk the cross over when he saw that there were still people on the other side.

Even though the brocade box now belonged to him and was akin to his personal belonging, so the possibility of it dropping was very low, there was still a chance that it would drop. With that being the case, it was only normal that a person would choose to act carefully.

“If we are not fated to meet, then so be it.”

The few players remaining in the area were slightly disappointed, but soon, most of them left.

However, they did not know that Happy had not opened the brocade box.

*****

There were two different types of brocade boxes delivered to Beijing. One of them was the overt tribute, and the other the hidden tribute.

The value of overt and hidden tributes was the same, but the meaning behind them was different.

The overt tributes were great items sent from various sects and clans to the imperial court, and even normal players could check the brocade boxes and learn what was inside them.

However, the hidden tributes were gifts delivered to the eighth prince from different sects and distinguished clans!

In the quest, the overt tributes were not just snatched by the players and bandits. Sects that were against each other had fought against their enemies to snatch the tributes, but practically none of them ended up with what they wanted.

Most of the brocade boxes in the hands of the handful of players were hidden tributes!

Some of them had gold notes in them, and some of them had jewels that were worth one million taels of silver crumbs. The players would have to depend on their luck for whether they could get high-tier martial art manuals, miraculous medicine, equipment and weapons from famous craftsmen, or other practical treasures. The percentage of the brocade boxes containing such items was higher than fifty percent, so it was not that bad.

Happy remembered that even though every single player who received the brocade boxes after the emperor’s birthday ended as winners, some of them were just temporary winners.

The players who obtained gold notes and jewels could develop rather quickly for a short period of time, but most of them only had a few months to shine.

However, those who obtained high-tier martial art manuals usually received relatively rare martial arts, and their abilities increased by a large margin. It was the same for those who received miraculous medicine. The medicinal pills created by famous physicians would increase their attributes by a small margin or increase their abilities greatly for some time. The equipment and weapons created by famous craftsmen were also rarely seen supreme grade items. Normal masterpieces such as Green Jade Shrouded in Heavenly Silks could never hope to compare to them in terms of attributes.

A few months later, quite a number of people would show their might.

In the beginning, there were plenty of people who hastily opened the brocade boxes at the very first moment.

Only three people waited three days after the quest ended before they opened their brocade boxes. There was also one person who opened the brocade box half a month later.

The value of the items those three people obtained were the greatest!

Their treasures ranked at the top of the Masterpiece Ranking Board that would appear later. It was only a year after they appeared that they gradually slid down from the top ranks.

Hence, when Happy received the notification from the system that he could open the brocade box at any moment to receive the treasures inside, he was in great conflict in his heart. So much so that he did not open the brocade box even after half a day had passed!

Should he open it right away or should he imitate those three people and open the brocade box after a while?

Happy could not come to a decision.

He did not know if he could be like the three people from his past life if he delayed the opening of the box. After all, now that he had bad blood with Class One Hall, he could no longer keep a low-profile. Hence, he had to quickly strengthen himself so that he could handle the enemies that would surely come at him in endless streams.

As of right then, he still did not possess the strength to go up against a giant organization. His cultivation could not make up for the disadvantage of having to face multiple people by himself. He also did not have the ability to defend himself completely.

In silence, Happy placed his hand on the brocade box and tapped it at an irregular interval. There was a frown on his face as he was unable to come to a decision.

He sat there for half a day!

When night fell, bright moonlight shone on Happy’s body. It also illuminated the mountain across from him. Wailings and the howls of wolves could be heard from over there. The five heavy chains swayed as well, which created a rather noisy, but peaceful scene.

Happy opened his eyes and decided to put the brocade box into his Universe Bag. When he stood up at the cliff, his heroic bearing and fluttering blue robes made it seem like he had come to a decision. With the round moon high in the sky shining on him, he jumped and landed on the iron chains as lightly as an immortal.

*****

In Beijing, there was a stall set up by an old and blind fortune teller. A few hours earlier, a person wearing a black cape had paid him for his services.

The blind old man was named Iron-mouthed Divine Break, and he had a very resounding reputation in Beijing. He claimed to be the seventeenth successor of Ghost, and all those who paid him for his divination services found that the results were very accurate.

His divinations allowed him to predict when a player would be the luckiest on that day.

When a player went out to fight monsters or carried out quests at that time, their rewards would be much greater than at any other time!

And the blind old man had a specialty in being able to help wandering martial artists avoid trouble and solve their problems!

All those who wanted to learn of their enemy’s or a certain player’s location could pay a certain “divination fee” for that knowledge.

However, the blind old man could only tell the player’s location from ten minutes ago based on his divination techniques. And he could only figure out the general location, not the exact coordinates in the game.

The divination fee for a person’s location were more expensive as well. Every single time, a player would have to pay more than one thousand taels of silver crumbs.

Even so, Iron-mouthed Divine Breaker was visited by many players!

Right when they logged in, some of the players who believed in this sort of stuff would offer their money to learn when their luck would be the best, or they would ask him about the important but hidden news.

The person wearing the black cloak had been in front of the stall since noon.

Once in a while, he would hand over a bag of silver crumbs and a note to the fortune teller. Once the blind old man took it, he would touch it with his hands and begin counting.

In a while, practically all the players in Dengfeng City learned that there was one rich player who did not treat his money as anything important. He just kept on handing it over to Iron-mouthed Divine Breaker, but no one knew just what sort of important news he wanted to know.